Town and the City (Penguin Books)

'It is the sum of myself, as far as the written word can go' - Kerouac on "The Town and the City". Kerouac's debut novel is a great coming of age story which can be read as the essential prelude to his later classics. Inspired by grief over his father's death and gripped aby determination to write the Great American Novel, he draws largely on his own New England childhood.